Is the price of your morning coffee about to go through the roof?

The price of your morning latte, espresso or skinny caramel macchiato with an extra shot could be about to soar due to a killer fungus that is ravaging coffee harvests across Latin America.

Coffee rust, or roya, is a yellow and orange-colored fungus that has devastated coffee fields from Mexico to Peru over the past two years,causing more than $1 billion in damage across the region.

Its damage has become so severe that the U.S. government has launched a $5million drive to help farmers in the worst-hit regions in a desperate bid to save the industry and keep coffee cheap.

But aside from fears over the cost of a cappuccino on the American high street, the real concern is for the thousands of small, family-run farms whose livelihoods hang in the balance after watching entire crops be devoured by the disease.

I'm a big old Teddy Bear, unless you mess with my family, or my coffee, then I'm a big old Grizzly Bear!!! I'm a Folgers Mild Roast/Breakfast Blend guy, and I drink 2 each ten ounce cups every day. Name brand coffee is expensive IMHO as it is, without adding problems like this fungus thing.

Enforcement, NOT Amnesty!!!!!!

"If they’re going to come here illegally, apply for & receive assistance through a corrupted Government agency encouraging this lawless behavior, work under the table & send billions of dollars each year back to their families in Mexico, while bleeding local economies dry, protest in our streets waving their Mexican flags DEMANDING rights, while I have to press ’1′ for English, then they need to be shipped back to where they came from!" -Chad Miller

The moment to hoard cheap coffee beans has passed. The price of coffee futures peaked in April, and those higher commodity costs are now trickling down to grocery stores. J.M. Smucker (SJM) on Tuesday announced that it has increased the price of its packaged coffee, including the country’s best-selling brand, Folgers, as well as packaged Dunkin’ Donuts beans, by an average 9 percent.

The increase will reach millions of coffee drinkers, although for now the company’s K-Cup prices will not be affected. Folgers represents about 14 percent of unit coffee sales in the U.S., according to data from Chicago-based research firm IRI.

Coffee prices spiked after drought hit the crop in Brazil, the world’s largest grower, even though rains have recently eased some of the damage. High-end blends also might be affected by a fungus that is spreading through small farms in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, and other Latin American countries.

Black Blade: Preppers never fear rising prices. Heard it here last month when we warned coffee prices were gonna rise higher. Those who stocked up are set to weather the effects of rising coffee prices...

When you're born you get a ticket to the freak show. When you're born in America , you get a front row seat. - George Carlin